Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Nashik: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has invited fresh bids for three routes — Nashik-Pune, Jalgaon-Mumbai and Kolhapur-Mumbai — in Maharashtra under the phase-III of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).
The move to invite bids from various airlines comes after the AAI recently scrapped the agreement with Air Deccan following directives from Union civil aviation ministry. Air Deccan had bagged the bids for these three routes.

Even the agreement for Nashik-Mumbai route has been terminated although this route was not under the RCS. However, the AAI has not invited any fresh bids in phase-III of RCS.

“The contracts with Air Deccan for its services under RCS have been terminated. The bids for the routes have been invited from other airlines. The bidding process has already been started and it is to be completed by December end. We will issue work orders by January 2019 to the airlines that win the bids,” civil aviation ministry sources told TOI.
An AAI official said that contract of Air Deccan services under the RCS in Maharashtra have been terminated and action follows as per the agreement. Even the state government had written to the Union civil aviation ministry about the alleged poor services of the airlines early this year.
21/11/18 Tushar Pawar/Times of India